The HR Mistakes You Should Never Make

It’s oh so easy to not give too much thought to the Human Resources part of your company, when it’s working well, especially when you have much more important thing to think about like next month’s cash flow or that brand new marketing campaign, but when things go wrong, well that’s a whole other ball game!

From toxic employees to unmet expectations, making mistakes in HR can cause a whole lot of trouble for the average business. If you want to avoid such issues, here are the HR mistakes that you should never make:

Not Having a Recent Employee Handbook

Whatever your business might be you should have an employee handbook that lays out what employees should and shouldn’t do, and it should be up to date.If you don’t have one of these, then it would be so easy for you or your employees to fall foul of the law.

If you aren’t sure what you need to include, or what the latest laws and regulations in your sector are, speak to a good HR legal expert, like the ones at Slater Heelis. They should be able to help you get it right and stay up to date so that you don’t experience any problems.

Not Documenting Performance Problems

If you don’t write up any violations and performance issues that your employees commit, then it will be pretty difficult for you to fire poor employees when it becomes necessary. As you will know, you can’t just terminate an employee for no reason, so you need to have backup in the form of a written paper trail for everyone’s benefit, especially if you don’t want to get sued.

Not Keeping Detailed Personnel Files

It is also very important that you keep detailed records of every employee in your company. These should include everything from basics like their personal information to sickness and disability records, I-9s and performance related issues, as mentioned above, Because they contain sensitive information, it is vital that you keep them in a secure area which can only be accessed by HR personnel and not the entire workforce.

Hiring the Wrong People

You’d be surprised how many supposedly experienced HR managers and company bosses end up hiring people who are the wrong fit for the company. Usually this is because they are in a hurry to fill a position or because they haven’t really nailed down the job description, and sometimes it is because they have failed to carry out the relevant checks. This can lead to a huge headache when it becomes clear that an employee isn’t cut out for the job and the company needs to terminate them, Avoid this by actually doing the three things mentioned earlier, and by doing them right.

Not Offering Sufficient Training

If you want your company to run like a well-oiled machine, then you need to invest in your employees by giving them enough training and development to do their jobs well. Fail to do this, and your business may well fail.

Avoid these common HR mistakes for workplace harmony and a business that runs smoothly.